Mortgages

With major investors exiting the reverse mortgage space, originations of government-backed Home Equity Conversion Mortgages have dropped by 950 to 1,100 loans a month.

The surge in refinancings this fall pushed Fannie Mae's issuance of mortgage-backed securities to $63.7 billion in November, up 20% from the prior month.

Since launching its short sale module in November 2009, the default servicing technology provider Equator said approximately 1.2 million short sales have been facilitated through its platform.

The backlog of real estate owned homes held by banks and the government is "staggering," Fitch Inc. said.

One hallmark of the Dodd-Frank Act was the creation of the Office of Financial Research, an agency dedicated to collecting and sifting data from financial firms to help predict the next crisis.

It was surprising to find, looking at the 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, that $1 trillion in mortgage applications went unfunded that year. That's nearly 40% of a total of $2.6 trillion in apps.

Americans who are able to buy homes are putting down payments of more than 12% on average, a survey from mortgage lead generator LendingTree LLC found this month.

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Holiday retail sales gave the NACM's Credit Managers' Index a boost to a high not seen since May, but it remained below year-ago levels as many companies, including some in the mortgage space, are still in distress.

Numerous tax provisions including the mortgage insurance tax deduction will expire Jan. 1 because Congress did not pass its annual tax extension bill before the lawmakers left town Dec. 23.

The highest average residential home loan amount is given to homeowners who live in Hawaii, according to data from LendingTree.

Average weekly fixed rates for mortgages inched up a bit but still are ending the year near their all-time historic lows, according to Freddie Mac.

Fitch said Thursday it sees little risk of a negative rating impact on CMBS from the closure of 100 to 120 unspecified Sears and Kmart stores across the U.S., but noted there is some exposure in the commercial mortgage-backed securities universe to the concern.

Consumers are having a tough time qualifying for a mortgage these days, and even a federal program designed to provide financing for low- and moderate-income borrowers is winnowing out applicants with low credit scores.

The fourth of 20 high-rise condominiums planned for the tri-county South Florida market is now in the ground.

Despite the hand-wringing and nail-biting, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made it through 2011 without any major confrontation with the banking industry.

The FDIC, which has seen nearly 100 banks fail during 2011, is projecting that figure may rise again in 2012.

A Rhode Island mortgage loan processor with National City Mortgage Co. has pleaded guilty to participating in a straw-borrowing scheme that brought in more than $3.5 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement a congressionally mandated increase in their loan guarantee fees on April 1.

A leading indicator of future home sales jumped 7.3% in the month ofNovember to its highest level in over 19 months, according to theNational Association of Realtors.